Netherlands

November 21, 2017

Profile

Country/Territory

Netherlands

Activity

Background

The Netherlands funds numerous Israeli and Palestinian NGOs directly through government entities including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), the Embassy in Tel Aviv, the Representative Office in Ramallah (NRO), and the Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law Secretariat(the Secretariat), and indirectly by outsourcing to Dutch church groups and aid organizations, such as ICCO and Oxfam-Novib.

The Dutch government has provided over €75 million in direct and indirect funding to NGOs operating in Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza since 2014.

In May 2016, Dutch MPs Voorderwind (Christian Union), Ten Broeke (VVD), and Van der Staaij (SGP) submitted written questions to the Minister of Foreign Affairs about indirect Dutch support for pro-BDS activism.

On June 16, 2016, a majority of the Dutch Parliament (of 78 out of the 150 members) adopted a resolution that demanded the government review and halt, as soon as possible, all direct and indirect funding to radical NGOs that support BDS against Israel.

Funding via Embassy in Tel Aviv

The Embassy in Tel Aviv does not publish details on NGO funding. According to information submitted by Israeli NGOs to the Israeli Registrar of Non-Profits, the Embassy allocated NIS 896,588 to Israeli NGOs from 2013-2017.

Land Research Center claims that the Balfour Declaration “placed a toxic dagger in Palestine that aims at restricting the advancement of the Arab Nation and disconnecting its east from its west,” and is part of a “continuous conspiracy.” LRC outlines “the conspiracy in years,” which also includes the American war in Iraq, the “Fatah-Hamas conflict,” and the Arab Spring.

The 2016-2017 MFA grant was provided for a project that “fits the ambition to implement politically relevant projects: it helps a very vulnerable community in Area C (priority of the EU), enabling the people to remain in an area where settlement activities and pressure from the Israeli government could otherwise force people to leave.” (emphasis added)

B’Tselem received NIS 135,177 (2015) from the Dutch MFA. B’Tselem reported this as a “Human rights defenders project.” The Dutch funding transparency website OpenAid does not list B’Tselem as a “receiving organization.”

Oxfam-Novib

Oxfam-Novib received €162.5 million from the Dutch government (2015-2017). Oxfam-Novib is also head of the IMPACT alliance, which received €373.7 million from the Dutch government in 2011-2015. Oxfam-Novib’s projects in Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza listed as “active” (as of January 2017) have combined budgets of over €8.8 million.

In January 2011, Minister Rosenthal had a “frank and open discussion” with ICCO, noting that EI’s activities are “directly contrary to Dutch government policy.” The Minister dismissed ICCO claims that its funding of EI comes from private donations as “disingenuous.”

ICCO refused to change its policy and defended support for BDS and EI as “a peaceful and legal way to push for an end to the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories.”

Cordaid

From 2012-2015, Cordaid funded23 projects in Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza, with a total budget of €4.7 million. The majority of the funding allocated by Cordaid was provided by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs via the MSFII program. The projects were all completed on or before December 31, 2015.

PAX

PAX (formerly IKV Pax Christi) received €9.9 million from the Dutch government in 2015-2016 through the MSFII funding program. PAX was chosen in “2015 as a strategical partner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.” In 2016, PAX received €12.8 million from the Dutch government.

Related Articles

In response to a letter sent by NGO Monitor regarding the funding of a group that inaugurated a youth center named after a terrorist, the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs clarified that, in cooperation with the other donor countries of the Secretariat, the Netherlands has decided to suspend cooperation with WATC until further notice.

NGO Monitor calls upon the Dutch Government to implement the Dutch Parliament’s recommendations regarding state funding of BDS organizations through the Human Rights & International Humanitarian Law Secretariat

NGO Monitor writes to Dutch officials regarding the conflation of true human rights groups and political advocacy NGOs within the nominees for the Tulip Human Rights Prize, and the biases of the judges for the Prize.